Golden Temple of Dambulla

Dambulla cave temple also known as the Golden Temple of Dambulla is a World Heritage Site (1991) in Sri Lanka, situated in the central part of the country.  It is the largest and best-preserved cave temple complex in Sri Lanka. The rock towers 160 m over the surrounding plains.There are more than 80 documented caves in the surrounding area. Major attractions are spread over 5 caves, which contain statues and paintings. These paintings and statues are related to Lord Buddha and his life. There are a total of 153 Buddha statues, 3 statues of Sri Lankan kings and 4 statues of gods and goddesses. The latter include two statues of Hindu gods, the god Vishnu and the god Ganesh. The murals cover an area of 2,100 square metres. Depictions on the walls of the caves include the temptation by the demon Mara, and Buddha's first sermon.
Prehistoric Sri Lankans would have lived in these cave complexes before the arrival of Buddhism in Sri Lanka as there are burial sites with human skeletons about 2700 years old in this area, at Ibbankatuwa near the Dambulla cave complexes.

This temple complex dates back to the 1st century BC. It has five caves under a vast overhanging rock, carved with a drip line to keep the interiors dry. In 1938 the architecture was embellished with arched colonnades and gabled entrances. Inside the caves, the ceilings are painted with intricate patterns of religious images following the contours of the rock. There are images of the Lord Buddha and bodhisattvas, as well as various gods and goddesses.

The Dambulla cave monastery is still functional and remains the best-preserved ancient edifice in Sri Lanka. This complex dates from the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC, when it was already established as one of the largest and most important monasteries. King Valagambahu is traditionally thought to have converted the caves into a temple in the 1st century BC. Exiled from Anuradhapura, he sought refuge here from South Indian usurpers for 15 years. After reclaiming his capital, the King built a temple in thankful worship. Many other kings added to it later and by the 11th century, the caves had become a major religious centre and still are. King Nissanka Malla gilded the caves and added about 70 Buddha statues in 1190. During the 18th century, the caves were restored and painted by the Kandyan Kings.

The five caves

Dambulla complex of cave monasteries.

The temple is composed of five caves, which have been converted into shrine rooms. The caves, built at the base of a 150m high rock during the Anuradhapura (1st century BC to 993 AD) and Polonnaruwa times (1073 to 1250), are by far the most impressive of the many cave temples found in Sri Lanka. Access is along the gentle slope of the Dambulla Rock, offering a panoramic view of the surrounding flat lands, which includes the rock fortress Sigiriya, 19 km away. Dusk brings hundreds of swooping swallows to the cave entrance. The largest cave measures about 52m from east to west, and 23m from the entrance to the back, this spectacular cave is 7m tall at its highest point. Hindu deities are also represented here, as are the kings Valagamba and Nissankamalla, and Ananda - the Buddha's most devoted disciple.

Cave of the Divine King

The first cave is called Devaraja lena (lena in sinhalese meaning cave), or "Cave of the Divine King." An account of the founding of the monastery is recorded in a 1st-century Brahmi inscription over the entrance to the first cave. This cave is dominated by the 14-meter statue of the Buddha, hewn out of the rock. It has been repainted countless times in the course of its history, and probably received its last coat of paint in the 20th century. At his feet is Buddha's favorite pupil, Ananda; at his head, Vishnu, said to have used his divine powers to create the caves.

Reclining Buddha, in Dambulla complex of cave monasteries.

Cave of the Great Kings

In the second and largest cave, in addition to 16 standing and 40 seated statues of Buddha, are the gods Saman and Vishnu, which pilgrims often decorate with garlands, and finally statues of King Vattagamani Abhaya, who honored the monastery in the 1st century BC., and King Nissanka Malla, responsible in the 12th century for the gilding of 50 statues, as indicated by a stone inscription near the monastery entrance. This cave is accordingly called Maharaja lena, "Cave of the Great Kings." The Buddha statue hewn out of the rock on the left side of the room is escorted by wooden figures of the Bodhisattvas Maitreya and Avalokiteshvara or Natha. There is also a dagoba and a spring which drips its water, said to have healing powers, out of a crack in the ceiling. Valuable tempera paintings on the cave ceiling dating from the 18th century depict scenes from Buddha's life, from the dream of Mahamaya to temptation by the demon Mara. Further pictures relate important events from the 
country's history.

Great New Monastery

The third cave, the Maha Alut Vihara, the "Great New Monastery" acquired ceiling and wall paintings in the typical Kandy style during the reign of King Kirti Sri Rajasinha (1747–1782), the famous Buddhist revivalist. In addition to the 50 Buddha statues, there is also a statue of the king.


Source: Wikipedia

Sri Lanka: Temple of the Tooth

Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic is a Buddhist temple in the city of Kandy, Sri Lanka. It is located in the royal palace complex of the former Kingdom of Kandy.

Monks conduct daily worship in the inner chamber of the temple. Rituals are performed three times daily: at dawn, at noon and in the evenings. On Wednesdays there is a symbolic bathing of the relic with an herbal preparation made from scented water and fragrant flowers, called Nanumura Mangallaya. This holy water is believed to contain healing powers and is distributed among those present.

Built in the 16th century, the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic (also known as Dalada Maligawa) is one of the most sacred Buddhist sites in the world. As denoted by its namesake, it houses Sri Lanka’s most important Buddhist relic- an actual tooth of Buddha. The relic is kept in a golden Dagoba casket and attracts many devotees and curious visitors.

In ancient times, the tooth held more than religious significance, it also carried political importance, as it was believed that whoever had the tooth was vested with power to rule.

Wall painting at Kelaniya Temple of Princess Hemamali and her husband, Prince Dantha which she carried Gautama Buddha's tooth relic hidden in her hair to Sri Lanka. - Painting by Solias MendisJPG

In the 4th century King Guhasinha of Dantapura sent his daughter to Sri Lanka with the Tooth hidden in her hair to keep it safe during a time of political crisis. This was in the year 310 CE and since that time the vicissitudes of the Tooth have been meticulously recorded.

In 1560 the Portuguese who were constantly fighting with the Sinhalese for control of the island triumphantly announced that they had captured the Tooth. They took it to Goa where a huge public gathering was held during which Archbishop Don Gaspar, with spiteful glee, desecrated it, burned it then and had its ashes thrown into the sea. It was the Sinhalese however who had the last laugh. Just as some leaders will sometimes have doubles acting in their place to protect them from assassination, Sri Lankan kings sometimes had replicas of the Tooth made to confuse those who might want to seize it during times of uncertainty. The Portuguese had in fact captured one of these replicas. In 1545 the Tooth was brought to Kandy where it has remained ever since.

The Sigiriya Ladies

Hidden in a cave along the citadel at Sigiriya are some of the most magnificent ancient frescoes in South Asia.

Some say they are celestial nymphs carrying flowers to shower upon kings and mortals below. Others suggest that they are queens and concubines. Some even suggest that they are the manifestations of the goddess Tara.

Tara is a goddess who was worshipped by Mahayana Buddhists in Sri Lanka. The divine females at Sigiriya are splendidly adorned with jewellary, bracelets, necklaces, tiaras, diadems, chaplets of flowers and are of three complexions red, yellow and green. The goddess Tara too has numerous manifestations in regal splendor and may be of red, yellow, green, blue or white complexion.

Sigiriya Fresco Tattoo 

All the females depicted on the Sigiriya Frescoes wear a dainty three-ringed tattoo around their necks (see photo). Given the overall lack of information about the harem it is hard to establish with certainty if the woman of the harem were tattooed. This lack of evidence doesn’t preclude the fact that it may have been the case. This practice is known to have occurred elsewhere. Given the prestige attached to being a member of the orodha there is little reason to doubt that these ladies would have gladly worn their delicately etched tattoos with pride.

 Tattooed females are only depicted in the Sigiriya Frescoes and nowhere else in Sri Lankan art.

The Sigiriya Frescoes were painted on the western surface of Sigiriya Rock. Completed nearly 1600 years ago they were part of a huge tapestry that extended in a gigantic band around the waist of the rock.

Halfway on Sigiriya-rock, you can see very special mural paintings. They are non-religious representations of women, of which some have been preserved very well. Some sources even say that the whole western face of the rock used to be covered with these paintings (of 500 women). 

John Still in 1907 suggested, "The whole face of the hill appears to have been a gigantic picture gallery... the largest picture in the world perhaps". The paintings would have covered most of the western face of the rock, an area 140 metres long and 40 metres high. There are references in the graffiti to 500 ladies in these paintings. However, most have been lost forever. More frescoes, different from those on the rock face, can be seen elsewhere, for example on the ceiling of the location called the "Cobra Hood Cave".

Although the frescoes are classified as in the Anuradhapura period, the painting style is considered unique; the line and style of application of the paintings differing from Anuradhapura paintings. The lines are painted in a form which enhances the sense of volume of the figures. The paint has been applied in sweeping strokes, using more pressure on one side, giving the effect of a deeper colour tone towards the edge. Other paintings of the Anuradhapura period contain similar approaches to painting, but do not have the sketchy lines of the Sigiriya style, having a distinct artists' boundary line. The true identity of the ladies in these paintings still have not been confirmed. There are various ideas about their identity. Some believe that they are the wives of the king while some think that they are women taking part in religious observances. These pictures have a close resemblance to some of the paintings seen in the Ajanta caves in India.

The Dying Tradition of Sri Lankan Stilt Fishing

At dawn, Sunil (left) and Anil Madushanka sit on stilts they both inherited from their fathers.

Big Fish, small fish - Sri Lanka´s stiltfishermen, Asia, South Asia, Sri Lanka, Ahangama; The stiltfishermen Sunil Nishanti (left) and Anil Madushanka are sitting on their stilts and wait for swarm fish that pass their stilts in the shallow water. Due to the impact of the 2004 Tsunami and the overfishing in the coastal waters there is less and less fish to catch.

Before sunrise, Sunil walks across coral and rocks in the bay of Ahangama on the way to his stilt.

For 30 kilometers along Sri Lanka’s southern coast, between the towns of Unawatuna and Weligama, fishermen such as Sunil Nishanti sit motionless on wooden stilts a few dozen meters from the shoreline.

The technique may be unique, but it is a fairly recent innovation, first adopted just after the Second World War when fishing spots on rocks and cliffs along the coast became too crowded. Men started fishing from the wrecks of boats and aircraft left behind by the war, then some of them moved to stilts erected at fixed locations, which they then passed on to their sons.

Anil Madushanka leaves his stilt without a big catch while his neighbour Kalu and his cousin Sunil still continue their work.

The practice is unlikely to last much longer other than as a tourist attraction. Local fisheries are in decline, particularly following permanent alterations to the shoreline brought about by the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004. The returns from fishing, never good, are worsening, and few fisherman pass their stilts to their sons, instead renting them to other men who find it easier and more lucrative to pose for photographs.

For now, Sunil still earns his living from fishing. He and his family lost almost everything when the tsunami of 2004 flooded the bay where they lived. He declined a government offer to give him a new house on higher ground -– the bus 
commute would have been too expensive, and anyway, he wanted to live near the sea. For most of the year, he sells what he catches from his stilt. During the monsoon season, when fish tend to avoid shallow waters, he buys fish caught by trawlers and then resells them in his village. Other fishermen spend the period working as fruit and vegetable vendors or as seasonal agricultural workers.








Ahangama, Sri Lanka
Photographer: Florian Müller

Read more at the Huffington Post

The Legend of Adam's Peak, Sri Lanka

Adam's Peak is one of the most recognisable places in Sri Lanka, yet many people are not aware of the island's famous mountain until they visit it for themselves on their Sri Lanka holidays.



The mountain is held in sacrosanct by followers of four religions: Buddhists, Hindus, Christians and Muslims.



However, long before any of these religions appeared on the island, the mountain was worshipped by the native inhabitants of the island, the Veddas. They named the peak Samanala Kanda after one of the island's four deities. Hindus also have a different name for the peak and call it Sivan Adi Padham. They believe that the giant footprint left on the peak is Shiva's and was left on the mountain during his creation dance when he created the world.



The large footprint is five foot seven inches by two foot six inches wide, but Buddhists believe that the original footprint is even larger and was left by the Buddha on his third and final visit to Sri Lanka. If you are a follower of the Christian religion, then on your Sri Lanka holidays, you'll most probably hear the story of St. Thomas, who brought Christianity to the island. However, the mountain gets that name "Adam" from the Islamic belief that he stood for a thousand years on one foot as penance. The Islamic tradition tells how, when Adam was expelled from heaven, God put him on the peak to make the shock less terrible. This is because Ceylon was believed to the place on earth that most resembled heaven, with Adam's Peak being the closest spot on earth to heaven.



On your Sri Lanka holidays you may want to take a boat trip around the peak as the mountain is most impressive when viewed from the sea. Marco Polo was among one of the explorers who visited. Early Arab seafarers who spotted the peak, described it as the largest mountain in the world. However, the peak is not even the largest in Sri Lanka.



If you want to hike around the island, then the best time to visit is from December to May. This time is popular with pilgrims and gets busiest in the winter months of January and February. The trek takes about four hours and although it is possible to climb Adam's Peak from June to November, mist and rain make the climb much less appealing.



When climbing the mountain on your Sri Lanka holidays you will spot hundreds of beautifully coloured butterflies on your climb, which have earnt Adam's Peak its nickname, Samanalakande or butterfly mountain. Once you've reached the top, you will notice a small Buddhist temple and the shrine of the strange footprint. It is customary to make offerings here and small coils of silver are offered by those wanting to recover from sickness. Rainwater that falls in the footprint is also said to have special healing properties.



Your Sri Lanka holidays just won't be complete without taking a visit to Adam's Peak and after spending time on the spectacular mountain, you'll understand just why the Islamic tale describes it as the closest place on earth to heaven.



Reposted from eSriLankans.com

Adam's Peak Falls

This 10m-high water fall flows from the aquifers of Sri Pada & later on to Maskeli Oya Reservoir near Maskeliya.

Adam’s Peak, also known as Samanalakande (Butterfly Mountain), stands at 7,353 feet. The area has been a pilgrimage place for thousands of years. The existence of a huge footprint on its summit, means that it has come to be regarded as being a holy place. Christians believe it to be the place where Adam first stood when cast out of heaven, whilst Buddhists believe that the footprint belongs to Buddha and refer to the mountain as Sri Pada (Holy Footprint).

Sri Pada or Adam's Peak: Lanka's Holy Mountain

Though not the highest mountain of Sri Lanka, the striking pyramid of Adam's Peak (7,360 ft) is certainly the most remarkable. A depression in the rocky summit resembles a huge footprint, which has been venerated as a sacred sigh from remote antiquity. This was identified by Buddhists as the Buddha's footprint, by Hindus as that of Shiva, and by Muslims as Adam's. Later the Portuguese attributed it to St. Thomas the Apostle.

The Mahawamsa tells how the sacred footprint was imprinted by the departing Buddha on his third visit to Lanka, but the site did not become an object of regular Buddhist pilgrimage until the Polonnaruwa period, when Vijayabahu I built resting houses for pilgrims and King Nissankamalla himself, in the year 1201, climbed to the top and worshipped the spot.

The Muslim tradition of a footprint of Adam, first of the prophets, goes back to gnostic sources as early as the Mahawamsa itself. According to the legend, Adam was hurled from Paradise for his disobedience and stood in penance for a thousand years on one foot at the top of Adam's Peak, after which he was reunited with Eve on Mt. Arafat overlooking Mecca. By the ninth century, this footprint was consequently considered one of the most sacred sites in the world. 

Reposted from Sri Prada.org

 

Tamils in Sri Lanka

Megalithic burial urns or jar found in Pomparippu, North Western, Sri Lanka dated to at least five to two centuries before Common Era. These are similar to Megalithic burial jars found in South India and the Deccan during similar time frame.

 
Tamils, the second-largest ethnic group on the island, were originally from the Tamil region of India and emigrated between the 3rd century B.C. and A.D. 1200.  

There is little scholarly consensus over the presence of the Tamil people in Sri Lanka, prior to the medieval Chola period (c. 10th century AD). One theory states that there was not an organized Tamil presence in Sri Lanka until the invasions from what is now South India in the 10th century AD; another theory contends that Tamil people were the original inhabitants of the island. Yet according to another theory cultural diffusion, rather than migration of people, spread the Tamil language from peninsular India into an existing Mesolithic population, centuries before the Christian era.

However according to Tamil tradition in Sri Lanka, they believe that they are lineal descendants of the aboriginal Naga and Yaksha people of Sri Lanka. The "Nakar" used the cobra totem known as "Nakam" in the Tamil language, which is still part of the Hindu Tamil tradition in Sri Lanka today as a subordinate deity.

 Sri Lankan Tamils

There are two groups of Tamils in Sri Lanka: the Sri Lankan Tamils and the Indian Tamils. The Sri Lankan Tamils (or Ceylon Tamils) are descendants of the Tamils of the old Jaffna Kingdom and east coast chieftaincies called Vannimais. The Indian Tamils (or Hill Country Tamils) are descendants of bonded labourers sent from Tamil Nadu to Sri Lanka in the 19th century to work on tea plantations. Furthermore, there is a significant Tamil-speaking Muslim population in Sri Lanka; however, unlike Tamil Muslims from India, they are not ethnic Tamils and are therefore listed as a separate ethnic group in official statistics.

Most Sri Lankan Tamils live in the Northern and Eastern provinces and in the capital Colombo, whereas most Indian Tamils live in the central highlands. Historically both groups have seen themselves as separate communities, although there is a greater sense of unity since 1980s.

Under the terms of an agreement reached between the Sri Lankan and Indian governments in the 1960s, about 40 percent of the Indian Tamils were granted Sri Lankan citizenship, and many of the remainder were repatriated to India. By the 1990s, most Indian Tamils had received Sri Lankan citizenship.